


I Do Knot

by Oboeist3



Series: Tangled Red Strings [2]
Category: Eureka
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst galore, F/M, M/M, References from 2x13 to 3x4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 10:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5582338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oboeist3/pseuds/Oboeist3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They don't talk about it that night. They don't really talk about it at all. Not until the end of everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Do Knot

**Author's Note:**

> I was actually not planning on continuing after the first part of this (Irresistible), but I_Kill_Zombies comment gave me an idea and I just ran with it. Hope you all enjoy! :D

They don't talk about it after that night, at least not directly. But it manages to seep in when Carter finds out about Beverly and Kevin and the Artifact, webbed delicately and fatally into his brain. It lurks in the way the banter continues beyond reasonable restrain, and the breathy 'thank you' from Stark's lips for far more than just the hand up.

Jack's suspicions that this is the end of their particular line together comes in two confirmations. The first when they stand on top of the bunker, their last moment alone and no longer in the ears of Fargo. The last chance, and they both know it.

"Carter," Nathan starts, corrects himself. "Jack. I just want you to know, I appreciate everything you've done."

He doesn't have to say what he's talking about, it would be moot. Pointless. And it hurts like hell, but at least Nat- Stark had the decency to tell him this was the end. Not like Abby, who let it draw all the affection from the both of them until they were bitter and empty.

The 'let's do this' is his own way of replying in turn. It doesn't say everything he's feeling, but it doesn't need to. All he needs to know is Jack's understanding of the truth of it. Even if he doesn't want to accept it.

The second comes after the dust settles, seeing Allison, Kevin and Stark all held close on an executive rather than comfortable couch, their smiles like sunbeams. They look so perfect, so content. He knew his own involvement would taint it, break it apart. His fingers might as well be broken glass.

So Jack Carter crosses his arms over his chest and looks away. Because some things were never meant to see the light.

* * *

Of course, it couldn't be that simple. He can't avoid them, not without leaving the town, and he's grown to love this little nightmare he calls home. He also can't tell anyone, lest the small-town whispers spread and shatter Stark's chances, and Jack won't do that to him. After all, he promised the same.

So he wears his life even more tightly than usual: he's overprotective of Zoe, bound to the law, teasing to Jo and Allison, taunting in increasingly cruel ways to Stark. He plays his role convincingly, but Allison notices, asks _him_ for permission before that final, inevitable, yes.

She doesn't want to hurt him, and ironically that makes it worse. How much she cares about him, wants him to be ok with this. To be happy. But there's a part of him buried down below all of the bullshit he builds that knows he won't be without them. Both of them.

He calls that part Greed and tries every night to kill it.

Henry notices too, though the facade the sheriff wears for his sake has the additional bonus that he's Jack's best friend and he might never see him again, even though he did the right thing. Jack almost does tell him, slipped between the rays of a sunset, but is stopped by his disappearance into thin air.

Even once Eva Thorne brings him back, her one good act, there's no time. The Wedding, an internally capitalized event, is approaching ever faster, and Eureka continues to be herself in all glory. Exploding dogs, logic diamonds, being chased by magma into the lake with Stark as his copilot. An innocent statement by Allison afterwords, about how they should work together more often, makes them both let out halting agreements and avert their eyes.

It was too easy, for Jack at least, to fall back into that grudging, scathing love, the kind that teetered on the edge of darker emotions. He'd wanted so badly to kiss him after that comment about Fargo driving, just to make him shut up. But he'd lost that strategy, lost a whole lot more than he wants to ever admit.

* * *

The day of the wedding finally arrives, and then keeps arriving, looping in fact, until Jack's left with a ruined uniform, a busted face and some cracked ribs to boot. He finally gets Stark and Fargo to believe him and help fix the thing, but the seal breaks, and Stark is pushing himself in and Carter feels this jump in his gut that always precedes disaster, so he asks.

"Are you sure? What about Allie? What if you can't -"

"Of course I can." he interrupts, as only he would. "My ego's bigger than the building, remember?"

"You got the necklace, right?" Stark says, with a slight shift in tone that most people wouldn't even notice but Jack knows him, knows every inch of him and the way his voice changes right before he's about to do something stupid and Jack's heart drops faster than his stomach.

"Yeah, I do, and you're going to give it to her, alright Nathan?" he spits out, the first time he's called him that since that night in the bunker, scared and unknowing. That same atmosphere hangs in the air now, soaking every second counting down.

"Make sure she gets it and that she knows I did this for her." he continues, seemingly unphased but that slight movement in his face is enough for Jack to know that he's terrified. Terrified of dying, even to save the world. But he doesn't want the world, he just wants Nathan.

"No, you don't get to do this! Let me in there!" he screams, pounding a fist on the barrier, but it holds. "It doesn't matter if I go, they _need_ you here! Allison needs you!"

"No, Carter. She'll need you." he says, that same cool voice calling the shots, like this was something he could choose.

Jack's desperate eyes fall on Fargo, but Nathan's already two steps ahead of him. "Keep pushing buttons, Fargo." He looks at him with the anguish of a man who is dying himself. But, of course, he is.

"What about me, huh?" he asks, finally noticing the tears staining his face like a marker bleeds. "Did you even _think_ about **me**? What am I gonna be without you?" The worst time in the world to talk about this but he had to. He had to get him out of there.

"Happier, I hope. I'll see you around, Jack." he concludes, as the seconds finally run out. For a moment, time hangs frozen, and then begins, and all the while Jack's fist pounds into the glass until his knuckles bleed.

"We did it!" Fargo cries, and Jack looks up, through the waterfall of red to see a shaken, confused, but alive Nathan. The joy fills his body before his brain can even recognize the truth, and as soon as he does, Nathan is kissing him. Kissing him like he never has before, not even when he said he loved him, this is the proof. It's wonderful and desperate and everything he could dream and more. He barely manages to weave bloody fingers into his hair before a slight cough takes Nathan away.

"Um, I'm still here?" Fargo says, but Jack doesn't have enough logic left in his system to care. So he laughs. He laughs so hard that he feels the fractures in his ribs slide but the pain doesn't matter because Nathan's **alive!**

"You...brilliant.....arrogant....bastard!" he gasps out in the spaces, holding onto him as tightly as possible as black spots poke into his sight like annoying bugs. His hearing is fading, the words floating down to him as if through water.

"What about the wedding?" Fargo asks, but Nathan's looking down at him with concern shining in those beautiful green eyes. Starlight through the canopies.

"Cancel it." he commands, not tearing his eyes from him. "We've got to get Carter to surgery. Now!"

With that, Jack's consciousness turns off. 

**Author's Note:**

> Wow every single Jack/Nathan fic I write ends up with a kiss-drunk Jack in it. I think I have a problem. XD Anyway, I'm thinking of wrapping this whole thing up in Jack/Allison/Nathan paper, (the ultimate OT3), but only if people are interested. So....please comment! Seriously, it's the lifeblood of an author, especially me.


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